Academy manager Stewart Hall

Academy manager Stewart Hall is targeting the progression of one young player a season through to the Blues first team and he is confident that aim is achievable.

Hall is charged with developing the stars of the future and he believes that the club has never looked healthier in that regard.

Academy recruit Darren Carter is now a fully integrated member of Steve Bruce's first team squad.

Elsewhere, Andy Johnson is showcasing the talent, which was nurtured on the Wast Hills training ground, on the Premiership stage with Crystal Palace.

In fact the former Blues trainee finished the season as the top British goalscorer in the elite English league.

A look slightly further down the football ladder and you will find a host of other players that learned their trade at Blues; Tony Capaldi and Peter Gilbert at Plymouth Argyle and Craig Fagan at Hull City to name just three.

Who could be following Darren Carter into the first team fold?

The challenge for Hall and his backroom staff now is to bring through the next batch of bright young things that will hopefully be good enough to make it at Premiership level.

"We are pleased with the way things are going," says Hall.

"We still haven't got enough strength in depth yet to have great teams that can realistically challenge for the FA Youth Cup or the under-18 league championship.

"But what we have got is more and more individuals who could become outstanding players.

"In previous years I would look at each age level and pick out maybe one from each side that I thought might have a chance, but now there are two or three.

"That is enough to guarantee that you should get one through every year, all things being equal.

"Our target over the next two or three years has to be to get one player through and established in the first team every year.

"I think we have got enough in the system now in the 16's, 17's, 18's and 19's to do that, there might even be more than one but I think that is a realistic target."

A youthful Mat Sadler on England duty - the defender has suffered terrible ill-luck with injury in the last two years.

Each year the club offers Academy scholarships to around seven or eight 16-year-olds who will then have three years full-time training to fine tune their skills and hopefully impress sufficiently to earn a professional contract.

So out of the current crop of Blues youngsters, on whom does Hall harbour the greatest hopes to make the grade at the top level?

Starting with the under-20's, he says: "We all believe that defender Mat Sadler has the ability to play in our first team but unfortunately he has had another wretched season with injuries.

"We had another excellent 19-year-old England youth international, Stephen Luckett, forced to pack in the game due to a serious injury so that's a blow at the top end of our age scale.

"Sam Alsop hasn't developed as much as we would have liked due to injury problems.

"So out of the top group, winger Carl Motteram has probably been the most consistent performer along with goalkeeper Colin Doyle, who has been on loan at Nottingham Forest for the second half of the season."

Whilst Doyle has had a taste of first team action at the City Ground, the outstanding prospect from the under-19 group, Neil Kilkenny, has been a regular in the Oldham Athletic midfield during a loan spell at Boundary Park.

Neil Kilkenny, "an outstanding prospect", in action for Oldham Athletic.

"Neil has come back from Oldham with 30-plus games under his belt," says Hall.

"He has also been involved with the England under-20 side at the same time so he is getting good experience, internationally and domestically.

"We know that he has got to grow up a little bit and fill out, but everyone agrees that he is outstanding.

"In the same group I would also mention Peter Till (midfielder/striker) who has been 17th man for the first team on a few occasions this season.

"When he has trained and worked with the first team he has looked very good and he has had an excellent season in the reserves and looked a real threat."

Dropping down to the under-18 age group, it's the name of Asa Hall that has been making most of the headlines.

Although still classed as a second year scholar, the goal-scoring midfielder has been handed a professional contract and could be on the verge of a breakthrough into first team football.

The locally-born 18-year-old has already established himself as a regular in the club's reserve side and recently earned international recognition for the first time with England at under-19 level.

Asa Hall scores against Liverpool reserves this season.

Stewart Hall believes that the time may be close for his namesake to get some first team experience under his belt.

Whether that is with Blues, or courtesy of a loan move similar to that made by Kilkenny, is obviously a decision to be made by boss Steve Bruce.

"Asa is the outstanding prospect in the under-18 group," says Hall, who holds the highest coaching badge in the game, a UEFA A license.

"He has been playing in the reserves for the last two years and has probably clocked up around 30 games, so he is almost a veteran of the reserve side.

"He has done so well and he is so close that the quandary is what to do with him now.

"Do you keep him here and include him in the first team squad or do you get him out on loan to do the 'Kilkenny route'?

"That is something that the gaffer must decide upon and it will be interesting to see whether he thinks he is good enough to go straight into the first team squad.

"He is a good header and striker of the ball with a really nice long-legged stride, so he covers the ground very well and he kills himself to get into goal-scoring situations."

Two other teenagers on the Blues books have also been selected for England duty during the latter stages of this season.

Blues under-16 striker Sone Aluko in international action for England.

Seventeen-year-old first year Academy midfielder Brett Hinks was invited to an under-18 three-day training camp whilst schoolboy Sone Aluko, a 16-year-old striker, was part of the under-16's squad for the annual Montaigu Tournament in France.

"Brett was outstanding before breaking his leg a year ago but he is now showing signs that he is getting back to his best and started to figure in the reserves towards the end of the season," explains Hall.

"Going down into the under-16's and Sone Aluko is rated as good as anything in the country.

"He has played in the under-18 side this season and he has done really well and also established himself in the England youth set-up."

So the future is looking bright and hopefully it won't be long before we see another home-grown Brummie youngster following Darren Carter into the first team fold.